Joe Biden accused Trump of 'fanning the flames of white supremacy' in a blistering speech

Reuters

Democratic 2020 presidential candidates speak at the UnidosUS Annual Conference in San Diego

• Former Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 presidential candidate, accused President Donald Trump of legitimizing racism and white supremacy during a Wednesday speech in Iowa.
• Biden argued that Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric helped normalize and embolden the type of white supremacist and white nationalist views expressed by the suspected El Paso shooter.
• "This president has fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation. His low energy, vacant-eyed mouthing of the words written for him condemning white supremacists this week didn't fool anyone," Biden said.
• "Watching Sleepy Joe Biden making a speech. Sooo Boring! The LameStream Media will die in the ratings and clicks with this guy," Trump tweeted in response.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 presidential candidate, accused President Donald Trump of legitimizing racism and white supremacy during a Wednesday speech in Iowa.

Biden slammed Trump for saying there were "very fine people" protesting the removal of a Confederate statue in 2017 demonstrations that turned deadly in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying that Trump's comments "gave license and safe harbor to white supremacists and neo-nazis and to the Klu Klux Klan."

The former vice president's remarks came after two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio killed 31 people and wounded dozens of others in the span of one weekend.

Biden argued that Trump's rhetoric helped normalize and embolden the type of white supremacist and white nationalist views expressed by the suspected El Paso shooter, who published a manifesto on the website 8chan explaining he was motivated by a "Hispanic invasion" of Texas.

Biden pointed to Trump claiming that Mexicans would bring "drugs and crime" to the US first running for office in 2015, stirring up fears of a "migrant caravan" invasion shortly before the 2018 midterm elections, and his more recent comments decrying Baltimore as a "disgusting, rat-infested mess," and laughing while people joked about shooting migrants and chanted "send her back" in reference to a Democratic lawmaker of color at his rallies.

"This president has fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation. His low energy, vacant-eyed mouthing of the words written for him condemning white supremacists this week didn't fool anyone at home or abroad," Biden said. "The energetic embrace of this president by the darkest hearts and most hate-filled minds in this country say it all."

Read more: Trump condemned 'white supremacy' after the El Paso shooting, but his administration has made it harder to fight

Biden cited white supremacists and white nationalists' embrace of Trump as evidence that he validates their views, and called for stronger gun control laws, including a new assault weapons ban - an initial version of which he helped pass in 1994 - and buy-back programs, as well as more resources dedicated to cracking down on domestic terror.

"Watching Sleepy Joe Biden making a speech. Sooo Boring! The LameStream Media will die in the ratings and clicks with this guy. It will be over for them, not to mention the fact that our Country will do poorly with him," Trump tweeted in response to Biden's speech while on his way to meet with more shooting survivors in El Paso.

Biden has aggressively attacked Trump over racial justice issues throughout his presidential run, but Biden himself has faced plenty of criticism for his own record on race.

In mid-June, Biden was heavily criticized for touting his work with infamously racist and pro-segregation Democratic senators in the 1970s and 80s, saying, "I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland. He never called me 'boy,' he always called me 'son,'" Biden said. "Well guess what? At least there was some civility. We got things done. But today you look at the other side and you're the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don't talk to each other anymore."

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey quickly called on Biden to apologize, saying, "You don't joke about calling black men 'boys...I'm disappointed that he hasn't issued an immediate apology for the pain his words are dredging up."

Read more:

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